Yerby's The Foxes of Harrow is usually compared with Margaret Mitchell's best seller, Gone with the Wind (1936).

Both are historical Southern novels, using the Civil War as the background, and both have similar characterization and events. In terms of technique, both employ a touch of satire. Gone with the Wind has a Southern belle, Scarlett O'Hara, as protagonist, who. struggles to maintain the ancestral home against overwhelming odds after the defeat of the South. Of course, Yerby's protagonist in The Foxes of Harrow is an Irish immigrant of dubious character, obviously not a true aristocrat. Like Stephen Fox, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler must struggle to overcome adversity in order to be accepted amongst aristocratic society. Both Fox and Butler are dishonest, alienated from society, although Fox's alienation stems from his plebian origins and Rhett Butler has been disinherited by his family in Charleston. But Rhett...